“On the way to your wedding” & “American Metaphor, 16th and Mission BART, San Francisco”

On the Way to Your Wedding

The limousine drove behind a truck full of cattle on their way to slaughter.

I could see their faces out the window. The smell of hay and dried dirt

permeated our serenely air-conditioned vehicle. I tried not to think about

what kind of metaphor it might be, what it might augur for your union.

Later, at the reception, we stood around the fire, and I wondered if my friends could smell the death on me.

American metaphor, 16th and Mission BART, San Francisco

Rats live

in the sculptures

relief chiseled in white

shit-stained from birds,

piss-stained from men.

The rats move in and out,

so slow you forget

what kind of animal they are.